“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AC Ajaccio can pretend not to have heard.
The clubs have agreed terms, and what remains is formality: a medical, a photograph, a signature. Nobody at AC Ajaccio is pretending he will be back in the shirt.
The deal with FC Metz is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Alexandre André is 18, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
The last thing about a transfer that is still about the player is his signature on his own terms, and it is there. AC Ajaccio have lost him in all but the paperwork.
“I have nothing bad to say about this place. I just need to be somewhere else.” It is in writing now, which changes what AC Ajaccio can pretend not to have heard.
Marco Varnier and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Adam Matysek has, at AC Ajaccio, and the first month will show what that does to a man.
Squad14 Jun 2032
Alimami Gory falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. Monaco have kept their man, and AC Ajaccio go back to a list with one name crossed off it.
“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Janko Jevremović has his answer from AC Ajaccio; what he does with it is the next window’s story.
AC Ajaccio have made the call to Olympique Lyonnais. No fee, a share of the wages, and a spare shirt in the position where the squad has been thinnest all season.
64 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AC Ajaccio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Yazid Tifrani was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Florian Mekue was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
“I have given this everything, but my family is not here and neither am I, not really.” A footballer can be coached out of bad form. Nobody has ever been coached out of this, and AC Ajaccio know it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AC Ajaccio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at AC Ajaccio will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
93 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AC Ajaccio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
Somebody said out loud what several people thought about how hard another man trains, and Alimami Gory was in the middle of it. The one dressing-room argument that is genuinely about football.
Matías Billordo and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AC Ajaccio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Nobody at AC Ajaccio will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
114 days on the estimate, and a long, private, unglamorous year of a rehabilitation nobody watches. AC Ajaccio lose a footballer; he loses considerably more than a season.
It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at AC Ajaccio this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.
Squad29 Mar 2032
Alimami Gory falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AC Ajaccio can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AC Ajaccio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
121 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. AC Ajaccio lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.
Marco Varnier and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad22 Mar 2032
Words at AC Ajaccio training over how hard people work
Somebody said out loud what several people had been thinking. Alimami Gory is at the centre of it, and the squad will now find out whether the standard rises or the pair of them simply stop speaking.
“I have tried. I have really tried, and every day I wake up in the wrong place.” Nobody at AC Ajaccio can coach that out of a man, and nobody there is pretending to.
Nobody at AC Ajaccio will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
“It had gone on long enough. I would rather have it out than leave it sitting there.” Ten minutes behind a closed door at AC Ajaccio, and both men came out saying it was fine.
Florian Mekue falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
Something was said to Bryn Deeley and then it happened. In this industry that passes for remarkable, and the dressing room noticed faster than any supporter could.
Nobody at AC Ajaccio will say this on the record and the team sheets have been saying it for weeks. There is a small group in every squad who get picked when the fixture is difficult, and he has joined it.
He asked about his future and was given an answer with minutes in it. The manager has now made a promise in a building where promises are remembered, and the clock on it has started.
He trains hard, says the right things and goes home to an empty flat. Nobody at AC Ajaccio has done anything wrong, which is exactly what makes it so difficult to fix.
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Boardroom2 Feb 2032
Deadline passes with 4 signed and 7 gone
That is the business done at AC Ajaccio until the window opens again. Whether it was enough will be answered on Saturdays rather than in a column, and the first Saturday is close.
Marco Varnier and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Squad2 Feb 2032
Florian Mekue falls out with a teammate over standards
The oldest argument in any dressing room and the only one that is genuinely about football: one man thinks another is not putting enough in. It is also the row a manager privately does not mind having happened.
“If you cannot run for the shirt, somebody else will wear it.” No name was used and none was needed; every player in that room knew who it was for.
Player ratings2 Feb 2032
Joseph Hungbo was on a different afternoon to everybody else
8.30. There are performances a supporter describes to somebody who was not there and cannot quite convey; this was one, and the number does not help either.
He is doing things every Saturday that nobody around him can answer. It is flattering for a season and a problem after that, and AC Ajaccio know which stage they are at.